NYC thunderstorm lightning strike creates huge thunder boom
NEW YORK - A line of thunderstorms moved through New York City early on Monday. Among the things hit by lightning was One World Trade Center.
The tallest building in New York City was hit by a strike a minute or two after 6 a.m. And it brought NYC a huge thunder boom.
The National Weather Service tweeted a photo from an EarthCam of the lightning strike with the caption, "Bet this woke some folks up."
People in various parts of Manhattan reported a large sound like an explosion as the clap of thunder hit after the lightning.
"One of the loudest if not the loudest I have ever heard!" one person wrote on Twitter.
A person all the way on the Upper East Side said that it shook her building and set off car alarms.
Someone on the other side of the Hudson River in Jersey City said "I literally thought a bomb had went off."
Another person who lives near the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan said the sound rocked them out of REM sleep and they thought their building was collapsing.
Gothamist reported that the reason the thunder was so loud was due to thermal inversion. A layer of cold air was trapped below warmer air, trapping the sound waves toward the ground.
Because of its height, the World Trade Center is often hit by lightning. In September 13, 2021, one strike was actually a rare upward strike, where the bolt appears to begin with the building and travels toward the cloud, according to FOX Weather.
"Usually what happens when you have upward lightning is that you have a strong electric field go over the top of a tall object, like a skyscraper or radio tower, and upward leaders are initiated off the tower as a result," meteorologist Chris Vagasky with Vaisala said at the time. "They connect with the electric field in the cloud and you get lightning."
New York City could see more rain as the week goes by but it does not appear that any severe storms are expected along with the rain. Here is the FOX 5 Weather Blog with forecast details.